Investigating the Lay and Scientific Norms for Using ‘Explanation’

In the mid-twentieth century, Hempel (1962, 1965) bucked posit ivist ort hodoxy and proposed that explanations have a legitimate role to play in science. Yet, when it came time to offer up a model of explanation, Hempel held fast to the positivist tendency of abstracting both from facts about human psychology and from the specific contents of claims (i.e., in favor of bare logical form). At the broadest level, he proposed that explanations are sets of true statements arranged into formally acceptable arguments. That such arguments count as explanations has, Hempel thought, nothing to do with what anyone thinks or feels; explanations are dissociable, even doubly so, from psychology

Matters of character

Notions of character are central to both normative and applied ethics. Over the past 15 years or so, a growing number of philosophers have advanced empirically-based critiques of virtue ethics, arguing for skepticism about character. I show how standard approaches to virtue ethics can be modified so as to avoid these rather damaging empirical critiques. The most promising responses to character skepticism, however, are not always available to virtue ethical approaches to applied ethics. In particular, I argue that virtue ethical approaches to business ethics are in need of novel responses to character skepticism or radical revision

Associations between First Year Medical Students’ Lifestyles, Resting Blood Pressure, and Resting ECGs

Introduction: There is considerable evidence that psychological stressors can impact cardiovascular health. Medical students experience a high degree of stress based upon their responses to survey questionnaires, although there are few physiological studies that support this association that are targeted specifically to medical students. Medical students in general represent an underrepresented age group in the context of cardiovascular treatment guidelines. Therefore, medical students are a pertinent cohort for study based upon these findings. Objective:The purpose of this study was to analyze whether medical student lifestyles impact normal baseline cardiovascular measurements of blood pressures and electrocardiograms in this population. Methods: Twenty five Medical students in the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine graduating class of 2017 were recruited and met inclusion criteria. Blood pressure and lifestyle factor surveys were obtained on a weekly basis and ECGs were recorded biweekly. All ECGs were read by a cardiologist. Participation by the cardiologist and the subjects was voluntary and without compensation. BP and Heart Rate data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and the ECG analyses using Fisher Exact Test. Data obtained throughout the study was compared to the subjects’ initial data gathered at the beginning of the academic year. Data was organized into the male gender category, the female gender category, and a category that combined the data for both genders. Results: There were statistically significant differences in the amount of caffeine consumption and systolic BP abnormalities (p=0.05), and also a statistically significant difference in the amount of strength training exercise and diastolic BP abnormalities (p=0.04) for the male gender category. There were statistically significant differences in the amount of strength training exercise and prevalence of early repolarization (p=0.01), and the amount of study hours and bradycardia (p= 0.04) for the female gender category.There were statistically significant differences between the amount of aerobic exercise and T wave inversions (p=0.03), anxiety level and voltage criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy (p=0.05), the amount of strength exercise and systolic BP abnormalities (p=0.02), the amount of strength exercise and diastolic abnormalities (p=0.004), the amount of study hours and bradycardia (p=0.034), and the amount of study hours and inverted T waves (p=0.008) for the combined gender category. Conclusion: Changes in both blood pressure and ECGs in association with both behavioral and curriculum lifestyle factors were demonstrated. Whether the behavioral habits that differed significantly from baseline were due to the curriculum cannot be determined from these preliminary analyses. However, these findings in this population are concerning with respect to younger adults as a discrete and unique population, and may warrant closer scrutiny in conjunction with the American Heart Association Guidelines to determine whether a new category of recommendations for younger adults may be warranted with respect to blood pressure and heart rate parameters

Fanciful Examples

This article defends the use of fanciful examples within the method of wide reflective equilibrium. First, it characterizes the general persuasive role of described cases within that method. Second, it suggests three criteria any example must meet in order to succeed in this persuasive role; fancifulness has little or nothing to do with whether an example is able to meet these criteria. Third, it discusses several general objections to fanciful examples and concludes that they are objections to the abuse of described cases; they identify no special problem with fanciful examples

Incontinence pessaries: size, POPQ measures, and successful fitting

The aim of the study was to determine whether successful incontinence pessary fitting or pessary size can be predicted by specific POPQ measurements in women without advanced pelvic organ prolapse. In a multicenter study, women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and POPQ stage ≤2 were randomized to three treatment arms: (1) incontinence pessary, (2) behavioral therapy, or (3) both. This study evaluates incontinence pessary size, POPQ measures, and successful fitting in the 266 women assigned to treatment arms 1 and 3. Two hundred thirty-five women (92%) were successfully fitted with an incontinence ring (n = 122) or dish (n = 113). Hysterectomy, genital hiatus (GH), and GH/total vaginal length (TVL) ratios did not predict unsuccessful fitting (p > 0.05). However, mean TVL was greater in women successfully fitted (9.6 vs. 8.8 cm, p < 0.01). Final pessary diameter was not predicted by TVL, point D, or point C (p > 0.05). The vast majority of women with SUI can be successfully fitted with an incontinence pessary, but specific POPQ measures were not helpful in determining incontinence pessary size

Interview With Dr. Bill VanPatten

Bill VanPatten is a Professor of Spanish & Second Language Studies at Michigan State University. His research interests include parsing and processing, input processing, the interface between morphology and syntax, and instructed SLA. He is the author or co-author of 8 eight books and almost 100 articles. He has also authored Spanish and French language textbooks. This interview was conducted on March 19, 2012. For more information about Dr. VanPatten, please visit his website: https://sites.google.com/site/bvpsla/